From Bitterness to Redemption | Ruth Chapter 2

Naomi returns to Bethlehem weighed down by grief and bitterness, uncertain of what the future holds. Ruth, however, chooses faith over familiarity, trusting the God of Israel even when the path ahead is unclear. As their story continues in Ruth chapter 2, we begin to see God quietly at work behind the scenes, providing, protecting, and preparing redemption in ways they could not yet see.

In this Bible study, we explore how seasons of hardship often become the very places where God’s faithfulness shines brightest. Through the introduction of Boaz, we discover a powerful picture of Christ, our true Redeemer, who provides for His people, shelters them in grace, and restores what seems lost.

No matter how difficult the season may feel, God is never absent. He is always working toward redemption.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You know, there's a lot of reasons that it's important for us to gather together as the body of Christ. I mean, matter of fact, there's more benefit to it than we can probably even understand. Yet I do think one of the reasons that's important is we get a little bit of a taste of what heaven is going to be like here on earth. The people of God gathering together in the name of God, in the name of Jesus, and making much of him and what he's done and worshiping him. And whenever we have little moments like this, and I just get to hear all the voices that make up this gathering, this part of our church, and they're singing in unison together, uh that's what heaven's going to be like. And it's not that that's all that's going to be going on, but that's going to be part of it. And we get little tastes and reminders and pictures of what our future bestows, that the redeemed born-again people of God gather together in his name the reality of sin no more, and us being in his presence for all eternity. What a blessing and promise that is. Well, Ruth chapter 2. We are going to continue in this narrative of this story of a Moabite woman who's found herself back in Bethlehem, associating herself by faith with the people of God, and we're getting a glimpse and picture of the redeeming work of God as he is protecting and going to provide for this widow woman by the name of Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth. Now, as we continue in the narrative of the story, let me just backtrack for a moment and remind you of where we've come from, uh, and then that'll help us understand where we're going. And there's several things I want to point out to you about this passage in chapter two that we're going to see today to kind of help us frame what we're going to be looking at. Now, the first thing that we saw last week is there is a woman by the name of Naomi who, because of a famine in the land, traveled to the land of the Moabites, and there she found herself with her family for a short period of time, her husband and two sons, who took for themselves two women, uh wives who were Moabites. And uh during their time there, though, the husband and both of the sons died. And so we saw the darkness that Naomi was experienced. We saw the reality of what heartbreak and uh just the hardship of life can create. And we talked a little bit about in her day and time, being a widow was even a harder plight than possibly even today, just because of the way that the society, the culture was structured. So she finds herself essentially feeling all alone. Matter of fact, she's in such bad spirits that she looks at her two daughter-in-laws who have been very kind to her and stayed close by her side and says, You guys just need to go home, go back to your own land, to your own gods. Essentially, what she's saying is, hey, the path that I've chosen and followed isn't working out well. I don't want to subject you to that anymore. And so one of the daughters reluctantly says, All right, I will go back home. I'll go back to my family, I'll go back to my people. But Ruth says, No, I'm not going to go. For whatever reason, she has, I think, seen the work of the true God in and through the life of Naomi because she says, I'm going to go with you. Don't send me away. Your family's going to be my family. Your God's going to be my God. Your people is going to be my people. And I think that's an exclamation of her faith in the God of Israel that she says, I've chosen this path, this life. I don't want to go back to my former way. Regardless of what this looks like for you and me, this is what's going to happen. And so Naomi means pleasant. It means uh, you know, has a connotation of uh of good spirit with it. And she finds herself going back, and people are rejoicing that Naomi has returned home, but she says, Don't call me that anymore. I want to be called Mara, I want to be called bitter because the Lord has dealt me a bitter hand, and I am not the person that I used to be. The pleasantness is gone, the hardship is here. But as we ended that chapter, what we saw is that there was a glimmer of hope because while they left Bethlehem in a time of famine and dryness, that chapter ended, that they returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. And so it was this little reminder for us that as difficult as times might be, that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. There is always a harvest to come, even in seasons of dryness. And that is one of the things of the faithfulness of our God. It's not that we don't walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The Bible never promises us that we're not going to walk through difficulty or hardship or famine or nakedness or sword. What it tells us, though, is in the middle of those times we are more than conquerors through our God who loves us, and there is a blessed hope. So that's where we left. Now, as we pick up in chapter two, we're going to introduce a new character. We're going to introduce a man by the name of Boaz. And what's going to be the primary focus of the story from here on out is about how God is going to work through both Ruth and Boaz to bring about a blessing not only for Naomi, but for their future family. And as we look at this, I think there's a couple things for us to see. One is we've talked before, that all of our stories in the Old Testament are a telling us a story of the gospel. They're telling us a story of Christ when we look below the surface. And what we're going to see in this story is that Boaz is what we would call an antity or a type of Christ that is reflecting us who Jesus is and what he's going to do. And we're going to see that in several ways in the life of Boaz. We're going to see that as he looks at Ruth, he's going to be a provider for her. And so just as Jesus is a provider for his people, ultimately providing salvation for us, providing for our very needs, we're going to see that as Boaz looks upon Ruth, that she finds favor with him, and that just out of the goodness of his heart and out of grace, not because he has to do anything necessarily, he is going to be a provider for her. We're going to see that he's going to be a protector of her. He's going to care about her and see the situation that she's in and see the predicament that she's found herself in and doesn't want harm to come to her. And so he's going to protect her. He's going to say, Don't go to other fields. Don't go around any of these other young men. Make sure you stay close to the ladies who are part of my servants, because it could not be good for you if you venture off too far. So therefore, stay close, and I'm going to make sure that you have what you need. And so, in the same way that Christ protects us as his people, ultimately his bride, we see that Boaz is going to provide that for her. The final thing that we're going to see, and it's going to be hinted at in this chapter, and it will be expounded upon later through the book, is that Boaz ultimately is going to become a redeemer. He is going to be one that's going to pay the price and bring restoration to this family. And he's going to take Naomi ultra, or excuse me, Ruth ultimately to be his bride. Don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but chances are you probably know the story already. And what's going to happen is he's going to step in and be this redeemer, which is this picture throughout the Bible. This picture of redemption comes in many ways and in many forms throughout the Bible and biblical literature. And it's all pointing us in the direction of our ultimate Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who through the laying down of his life, purchasing us with his blood, buys us back and restores us back until God. Now, as we look at the story of Ruth, one of the things that I want us to see about Ruth is I truly believe that she exhibits for us what a Proverbs 31 woman looks like. And what's interesting about this is Ruth is not an Israelite by birth, but she becomes one by faith. And what we're going to see is that this young woman who comes from a faraway country, who comes from a land of other gods, little G, but does not know the one true God, through Naomi and her sons, is introduced to the one true God, believes in him, trusts in him, follows him, and the character that comes out of her is that of a Proverbs 31 woman. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, let me encourage you to go read Proverbs 31 because it's this great picture about what a woman of God looks like. And this is not a weak woman. This is a woman who works with her hands, who provides for her family, who cares for others, strength and dignity, it says, are her clothing. And while there is a type of beauty that the world wants to celebrate, the Proverbs 31 woman tells us that even though those things, the physical attributes, can perish, this kind of woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. And her type of beauty goes on far beyond the changes in physical beauty. You know, we live in a world today that is so consumed with the idea of physical beauty that we will do anything and everything we can to try to keep it. And you know, you think about all the surgeries and things of that nature, you know, one of the greatest myths in the world for any win woman, but much less young women, is that you can look and be like these women that they show online who the who aren't even real. I mean, whether it's through altercation physically, through surgery, or through just Photoshop or AI or things of that nature, it paints a picture that's not even real. And essentially, unfortunately, we find people who are chasing a dream that's not even not even possible to obtain because what you're seeing isn't even reality. But nonetheless, outside of that, the Bible says that there is a type of beauty that extends far beyond outward physical beauty. And though physical beauty might come and go, what we do know is there is a type of beauty that's an inward beauty from the Lord that that extends far beyond that. Now, does that mean it's wrong to want to look attractive? No. Does it mean that it's wrong to want to take care of yourself and present a good side of yourself? No, it just means that that should not be the primary thing, and there is a deeper beauty that exists beyond that. And what's going to be interesting about this is that there is something very attractive about Ruth to Boaz that we're going to see, but he never talks about it in physical terms. He looks at her faithfulness to Naomi, he looks at her willingness to work. There is these other qualities in his life, and I think not only does that speak to the character of Ruth, I think it also speaks to the character of Boaz. I think that he's looking more beyond the outward appearance and looking at the heart. You know, one of the things that I've tried to tell all my kids, especially my sons, because boys by and large tend to be more, you know, visually minded than girls, and that's not always the case, but it tends to be, is that of course you want to date and marry someone that you find physically attractive. Like I would never say, you know, don't do that. But also reminding them that there is a type of beauty that extends far beyond what's on the outside. And there's a type of beauty that that is inward that is far more value. And the reality is that that she can be the most beautiful thing on the outside, but if she's ugly inward, you're gonna have a hard life. But the other way around, if there is a godly beauty inside of her, let me just tell you, it will last far longer and be far more attractive. So, all of that being said, uh, that's gonna kind of give us a little bit of a glimpse here of what's going on. Now, verse one. Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband's side. He was a prominent man of noble character from a limelech's family. His name was Boaz. Ruth, the Moabitus, asked Naomi, Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone with whom I find favor? Naomi answered her and said, Go ahead, my daughter. So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened to be in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech's family. Now, just a little side note here, and this speaks to the heart of God, that he so cares for those who are in need, the destitute, the lonely, the poverty stricken. The Bible refers to it as the orphan and the widow, that within the law there were certain rules and regulations about how a farmer could harvest their crop, but they were to always leave some behind. And so in Leviticus chapter 19 and Deuteronomy chapter 24, we've got commands in the law of Moses that basically told them that the outer portion of your field, you were not to cut that, you were to leave it. As you were cutting and gathering the grain, if any fell back to the side, you were not to pick it up, just let it stay there. And the reason would be so that those who were in need could come along behind you and gather it for themselves and be provided for. And there's a couple of important things about that. One, it is this provision for the needy, for those who don't have, but it also is a way for them to be provided for by which they were to work as well. And so, you know, a handout, right, believe it or not, even though culturally we have a hard time seeing this, a handout actually robs someone of dignity. You know, there is a type of dignity that comes from working with your own hands and doing for yourself. And I would tell you that all of us should have that type of dignity. Now, there's also seasons and times in life where we have to be willing to accept from others. That there's a maturity to that, there's a humility that belongs in that. But just simply giving people things all the time actually is a way to rob dignity from people and treat them uh with less than dignity. And so one of the things that was beautiful about this law is that God had provided a way for him to provide for the needy, but also allowed them at least to have some dignity by which they were at least gathering for themselves and harvesting some of the things for themselves. But all what it speaks to is the kindness and compassionate of our God. That he knew that there was always going to be the needy among us, there was always gonna be the destitute among us, and he writes into the law for them to say, Don't forget about those who have not been blessed in the same way that you have been blessed, and therefore make sure that you're providing and leaving something in behind. Now, Ruth knows this. She's somehow aware of the law, whether someone's instructed her of it, whether Naomi has. But what we see is that Naomi is still in such bad shape that she's not even thinking about their needs. And so Ruth is looking around and saying, All right, this is getting serious. We don't have anything to eat. And she becomes aware of there is a distant family member by the name of Boaz, who's part of a Limelex family, and she says to herself, Well, at least we can probably go behind into his fields and to be able to gather so we won't starve to death. Verse 4. Oh verse 3. So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind behind the harvesters. She happened to be in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from a Limelech's family. Verse 4. Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, The Lord be with you, the Lord bless you, they replied. Boaz asked his servant, who is in charge of the harvesters, whose young woman this was. Now I want to go back to a word and make sure that we understand something here. Verse 3, toward the end, says, She happened to be in the portion of the field. Now, this is a way to describe someone's perception of it, but let's just be honest about this. With God, there's no she happened to be. There is a sovereign God working in all of this and orchestrating, and at the just the right time, she happens to be in a field of Boaz, and he just happens, who seems to be a prominent man, happens to be walking in the field at the same time, and he sees this woman that he doesn't know. And life can sometimes seem like a bunch of happenings, but the reality is there is a sovereign God working in all of it according to his will and his purpose. So let me give you an example. Last night, for some reason, Adeline and her thousands of questions, uh, we were sitting there getting ready to eat supper, and she said, Dad, can you tell me the story of how you became the pastor? And I said, Are you wanting to know a story of how I became a pastor or how I became the pastor of the church that we're at right now? And she said, The church that we're at right now. And I said, Okay. And so I said, Well, one day I was minding my own business, just doing my own thing that I had done for many days for almost 12 years at the church that I was at, and I got a phone call from a guy who asked me and told me who he was and asked me if I would be interested. And my first thought was, this guy got the wrong number. He called the wrong guy. He thinks I'm somebody else. And I just kind of nicely said, Well, that's nice that you would call me, but I don't think I'm the kind of guy that you want. I'm kind of happy where I'm at, blah, blah, blah. Uh, several of those phone calls happen, and and and before long, God finally can convicted my heart that you haven't really prayed about this as much as you've just started making some of your own decisions. And I agreed to meet with them. And I said, and then I left the first meeting and called my wife and just said, uh, I think this is what where God's working and what God's doing, and kind of walked through that. Now, there could be a lot of happenstances in that. For instance, Mike Johnson was on the committee and he just happened to be at a funeral that I was preaching, and God began to speak to him and say, Hey, maybe this is a guy that you all ought to think about. You know, there's a lot of things that can seem like happenstance in the midst of it. But God is sovereignly ruling and reigning and working out all the pieces together. And so then, of course, Adeline says, Was I a little baby when we came? And I said, Well, you were little. I said, It was six years ago. I said, You were, you know, one, uh, but you you were tiny. But I said, you weren't a newborn baby. I said, but you were small enough that you were being carried around. And I said, you know, there were some guys that picked you up and carried you around. I said, Don uh carried you around, and Mike carried you around, and said, No telling who else, because you'll just go to about anybody. And then her and Kenny, Meek, are buddies, and she said, and then I met Kenny, and I'm like, you did. Then you then you met Kenny. And so all of that being said, life can seem like things just happen. But they don't just happen. You know, we use the word coincidence or happenstance, and and it's a word that we use to describe, it just seemed like it came out of nowhere. And life can't feel that way. But that's not how God works. God is purposefully working, and just think about this. Of all the times and places, Ruth Ruth finds herself in the middle of the field when Boaz just happens to be there. And Boaz, for whatever reason, happens to notice her. And I think Boaz seems to be a guy who seems to be very involved. I mean, he goes up to the harvesters, he says something kind to them, the Lord be with you. They reply in the same way. He notices that there's someone new. Now, maybe it's because she's cute. I don't know. Maybe it's just because he's like, hey, I know who's normally here, and she's she's different. She's not new. Who is she? So the servant answered and said, She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab. Now, let me just stop and say, now this creates a little bit of a dilemma. And it's a dilemma that's unbeknownst to us because we don't understand things, but if you were a very much a follower of the commands of God, in Deuteronomy chapter 23, because of the Moabites' involvement in playing a part in leading Israel astray and some curses and things that were going on through the time of Balaam, and it's a pretty convoluted story there. God had given a command that you are never to allow the Ammonites or the Moabites to dwell among you. You're not to show them any kind of favor, you're not to be good to them, but instead they were essentially cursed by God for their involvement in such things. And so, lo and behold, if you are a rule follower, all of a sudden now Boaz has been given a dilemma. Well, she's a Moabite? She's a Moabitist, like according to the law, we're not supposed to have anything to do with them. Now, here's one principle that I want us to think about. We need wisdom in how to apply and follow the commands of Scripture because they're not always as cut and dry as we want them to be. And I think some of the mistakes that we've made over time and the rules that we've created in the life of church and things of that nature stem from an unintentional but improper application and lack of wisdom in how to interpret things in the Bible. So, for instance, I'm not saying you should have tattoos. I'm not saying you shouldn't have tattoos. But what is the reason that many of us were told we should not have a tattoo? Well, there is a verse in the Old Testament that speaks to the fact that you shouldn't mark yourself. Now, what's interesting about that particular verse is I don't think it's speaking to what we would refer to as artistic tattoos of today, but rather it was marking yourselves with the markings of pagan gods. And because they had come out of Egypt and other things, it was possible for them to have marked themselves. And it was a way to say, hey, you you distance yourself, you separate yourself. Now, in principle, could you say that that tattoos today are possibly a way that we identify with the world? Maybe, possibly, maybe some of you feel that conviction, but nonetheless, we would use a verse like that to support well, it's completely wrong to you have a tattoo. Now here's the problem. We don't translate the rest of the chapter that way. And so the rest of the chapter that has that verse in it, there's a lot of things that we do and that we think are okay that we just follow in, but we picked out one part and said, well, because this verse says this, we can't do that. And what happens oftentimes is legalism can stem from either just following a rule verbatim because that's what it says, so that's what it m what it must mean, without a bigger picture of the application and the heart behind what the law was given. Now I know this makes things dangerous because all of a sudden now we are leaving some things subject to interpretation. Here's the problem, though, is that that's a far better way to go about it, wrestling with it, than just to make a blanket rule that says something that the Bible doesn't say. The heart of that law was to keep foreign gods and foreign ways of thinking, which oftentimes Israel was guilty of doing, intermarrying and allowing these other cultures to come in, and before long they're building places of worship in Israel of other gods when they're supposed to be called to the only true God. Ruth, in one sense, even though she's being called a Moabitus, is really not a Moabitus anymore. Why? Because she's turned from that life and by faith attached herself to the people of God, Israel. In the same way that Rahab from Jericho, by faith, and even Hebrews 11 speaks to this, said, I'm no longer going to side with Jericho. I see that God has given this into their hands, and then by faith she becomes an Israelite. And that's the exact same way that all of us are grafted into Israel who aren't truly Israel because we've trusted and believed. There are, as Paul says, people of Israel who aren't actually of Israel, meaning that there are people who might be Israeli by birth, but because they haven't believed in Jesus and haven't followed the Lord, they're not the type of Israel that God was calling because he's always called a people to him by faith. And I think there's a great little lesson that we're going to see in here because Boaz could have just strictly interpreted the rule and said, hey, wait, she's a Moabitist, get her out of the field. I don't care how cute she might be. God said, we can't have these kind of people, we can't do anything for her. But I think there's some wisdom on the part of Boaz to know the heart behind what God was saying, not just the blanket rule. And I think this is what's important for us in the life of the church always. To understand the heart of God and what he wants for his people, not just to follow a bunch of rules. And here's why we like rules they can be neater and tidier. And what it means is it doesn't require hard conversation. It just means that's the rule. But what I found in life is that honestly, there's, and when I say gray, it's not a gray of what's right and wrong. It's a gray, though, of how we interpret each and every situation because they're not all the same. As a guy who spent the majority of his adult life sitting down with people, and I've come to learn the phrase, oh, what a tangled web we weave, is so true. That in our sin we can do, make decisions and things that can get us in a bind that aren't just that neat and tidy to deal with and get out. And I've had some situations in my time as a pastor with marrying and divorces and living together and things of this nature that you're like, I don't know how you get out of this. And I've even called some of the wisest, oldest pastors I know for them to say, Boy, you've got a big one on your hands there, don't you? You mean you can't just tell me what to do? Nope. And there's some situations that you kind of walk through for a season, and maybe later you look back and say, I would have handled this a little bit differently, maybe. But the reality is when we're talking about real people's lives, real flesh and blood made in the image of God, whom you're trying to help navigate life and work through some of the decisions that sin has caused in their life, it's not near as clear-cut and easy as you think it is. You know, I've learned to be beware of the statement of one, I'd never. Well, that can come back to bite you and haunt you. You know, the other thing I learned is that it's a whole lot easier when I'm not having to sit down with someone and make a decision and say, well, here's what I would do. Not knowing all the details, not knowing everything that's gone on, and realizing that sometimes there's just not an easy solution and way to get out of it. And so Boaz here is caught with a little bit of a conundrum, but we're gonna see that I think he follows the heart of God more than just a rule that was written. He gets beyond the rule and sees the heart that God was giving him. The servant said, She is a young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab. Verse 7. She asked, Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters? She came and has been on her feet since early morning, except that she has rested a little in the shelter. So she's a worker. Again, Proverbs 31, woman. She works diligently with her hands. It talks about strength. What a picture here of a woman who's not only looking out for herself, but she knows that she has a responsibility with the mother-in-law. And so she has gone out since early, and she's taken a little bit of a break, but she has been out there getting after it. Then Boaz said to Ruth, Listen, my daughter, don't go and gather grain in another field, and don't leave this one, but stay here close to my female servants. See which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Haven't I ordered the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled. She fell face down, bowed to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor with you, so that you notice me, although I am a foreigner? Boaz answered her, Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband's death has been fully reported to me, how you left your father and mother in your native land, and how you came to know a people you didn't previously know. May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to for refuge. My Lord, she said, I have found favor with you, for you have comforted and encouraged your servant, although I am not like one of your female servants. So let's stop here for a moment because there's several things to think about. The first one is once he finds out her story and what she's about, he then goes to her and says, All right, you just stay with my female servants. You just follow them around. You just make sure that you stay close to them, and there's a reason why he wants to do this. And it was the things that we said at the beginning. One, he is providing for her. We're gonna see in a moment that there's gonna be a little bit more instruction that's gonna be given to them, but about what they leave behind. But essentially what he's telling them her is this as long as you follow them, you're gonna have what you need. You don't need to go look in another field, you don't need to go somewhere else. But secondly, he's protecting her. And he says, you stay close. I've already instructed my other men. You don't have anything to do with her, you leave her alone. Now, why? Well, because she's vulnerable. She's a young lady, not only in a male-dominated culture, but she's a foreigner who, again, would be easily exploited. So let's think about who God wants to protect in the Old Testament. And they represent classes of people. But what are they, what are they? They're the widow, the orphan, the sojourner. So the widow is one who's lost her husband, lost any type of representation or protection. The uh orphan is one without parents or those who can protect and provide for them, and the sojourner is one who finds themselves in another nation, in another place, and is easily, again, going to be manipulated, uh, mistreated, or taken advantage of. And so God is always protecting those who are in need. And she really kind of represents, in one sense, a little bit of all three of them. She's a widow, she's away from her family and her parents, although she's with Naomi, but she has no other male family member of her own to protect her. And also, she's in a foreign country. And so it'd be very easy for others who are not quite scrupulous to take advantage of her. And we see this happen all the time in the world. It's not uncommon for anybody who finds themselves in a situation of need to take advantage of someone else. I remember a story of when I was growing up, there was a couple of girls who were twins that were actually a little bit older than I was. And my dad was livid and actually called this guy, and that really wasn't in my dad's nature. But a family of very little means, the girls had uh bought this little used car that was old and and whatnot, and all of a sudden it quit running. And so they took it to the mechanic, and the mechanic told them that uh the transmission was out on it. And he offered them a few hundred bucks for it. They said he says it's really not worth anything, you know, several thousand dollars to fix the transmission, and and it wouldn't, you know, be hardly worth anything then. So these two young ladies decide, all right, well, I might as well take the few hundred bucks that he's offered us because we can't do anything with it. Well, all that was wrong with it is it was low on transmission fluid. And the guy then pours transmission fluid in it and then offers it for sale. And my dad gets wind of it and calls the guy and just says, I can't believe you would do that to a couple of young girls, and the guy being the unscrupulous guy that he was says, Well, that I I didn't know that was wrong with it, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Didn't didn't do anything about it. And then some guys in the church kind of came in and I think help helped them in that situation. But it's just the point of there are just guys out there, people out there, and by guys, I don't necessarily don't mean only men. In this culture, it could men, but but when you look at even human trafficking and things of that nature today, the number of women that are involved in it, it's a very sad reality. And the point is, she finds herself in a situation where she is really in dire need and can be easily taken advantage of. And Boaz steps in and says, Hey, I'm gonna provide and protect for you. Now, just a little spiritual application, whether we know it or not, spiritually speaking, that's where all of us are apart from the Lord. We're lost, we're all alone, we're dead in our trespasses and sins, we're vulnerable, we're easily manipulated, we we think we know things, but we're actually fools. And for any of us to get to the place that we trust in the Lord Jesus, it comes from a lot of provision and protection from the Lord watching over us and bringing us to that point of our salvation. Another thing that we see in here in verse 11 is again speaking about Boaz's uh attraction to her character and Ruth's character. Look at what he says in verse 11. Boaz answered her, Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband's death has been fully reported to me. How you left your father and mother in your native land and how you came to a people you didn't previously know. And again, I not to harp on this too much, because I don't think the whole story is just about this, but I do think it speaks so much about Ruth and her heart. I mean, here she has decided to stay with Naomi and not go back to her own people, to her own family. And she's out there slaving away every day, gathering grain, making sure that she has they have enough. Now I've never had to harvest grain this way. Praise God. But you know what? I've had some hard days on a farm. I've worked for my father-in-law, I've worked for my grandpa, and I know what a day in the heat, and I'm just assuming it's hot being in the country and the area that it's at, but man, there's been some tough days out in that sun beating down on you, and you're sweaty, and you're dirty, and it's just not the easiest life to live. Much less here's a young woman out there slaving away, doing this stuff. And I think this just speaks a lot to her character and why Boaz would be attracted to her. Verse 14, at mealtime, Boaz told her, Come over here and have some bread and dip it in the vinegar sauce. So she sat beside the harvesters and he offered her roasted grain. She ate and was satisfied and had some left over. Now, this is why I do think she has to be a little bit cute. I mean, there's something about her that has caught his eye because this just sounds like the kind of thing a guy does when there's a girl who all of a sudden catches his eye. Hey, wait, I've got a little something over here for you. I've got I've got a little bit of extra that I can share. And every guy in the room has felt this moment. If you're a young lady who's been married in this room, it's because some guy at some point had this moment with you and he pursued you, and he got a little sweet with you, and he offered you some nice things, and God was working through all of that. There is a reason why God has wired men to chase women. It's just there. Now, not all of the chasing is good, but there's a reason why, and it's to show us God's pursuit of us, right? Why are you a believer today? Because God pursued you. And I believe as we look at Paul says that the covenant love between Christ and his church is a representation of marriage, there's a reason why God set it up to where men pursue women or should pursue women. Because it is a picture of the pursuit of Christ of his people. Believe it or not, if you came to Jesus, it wasn't because you were pursuing him, even though maybe that's what you thought was happening. God was pursuing you. And I've heard many testimonies of people that just said, you know, I tried to get away from the Lord, but I couldn't. This isn't what I wanted to do. This isn't what I thought I wanted, yet somehow God managed to work in me in such a way that I found myself just open and receptive to him. And there's a reason why Boaz is pursuing her, not just because he's a man and because she's a woman, but it's a picture of how God pursues us in our relationship with him. When she got up to gather grain, Boaz ordered his young men, let her even gather grain among the bundles, and don't humiliate her. Pull out some stalks from the bundles for her, and leave them for her to gather. Don't rebuke her. So he's even given more instruction now. Not only don't just harass her or mess with her, but now it's all right. Here's even some more clear instruction. You make sure that you leave some back just for her. So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. She beat out what she had gathered, and it was about twenty six quarts of barley. She picked up the grain and went into town where her mother-in-law saw that she had gleaned. She brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her. Her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May the Lord bless the man who noticed you. And so she sees that she's brought back quite an extra bit. And Naomi's been around the block before, and she's like, Hmm, this isn't common. This isn't normal. So where were you? Where did you do this at? And may God bless the person who who did this. Her mother uh ver Ruth told her mother-in-law, whom she had worked with, and said, The name of the man I worked with today was Boaz. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May the Lord bless him, because not he has not abandoned kindness to the living or the dead. Naomi continued, The man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers. Ruth the Moabitus said, He also told me, Stay with my young men until they have finished all my harvests. Say Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, My daughter, it is good for you to work with his female servants, so that nothing will happen to you in another field. Ruth stayed close to Boaz's female servants and gathered grain until the barley and wheat harvest were finished, and she lived with her mother-in-law. Dun dun dun. The plot thickens, right? I mean, we're seeing this story begin to develop. And here's what we know is going on in all of it. God is working through the heart and desires of people to accomplish his purpose and his will. And I think this is one of the mysteries that we struggle to understand. Well, if God's sovereign, do my choices really matter? Well, absolutely they do. God works through our desires and our choices to accomplish his perfect will. It's just like we're going to see in this Good Friday service, Judas is part in this. Judas was culpable. Judas chose to do the things he did, and God worked through his poor decisions and his desires to accomplish God's purpose of redemption, and Judas's betrayal was always a part of God's purpose and plan. And God works through both. And sometimes in our human element of thinking, we want to try to make it one or the other, but the reality is it's both and that you and I make decisions. God is working through our decisions, but he's not only working through the decisions we make like he's just reacting, but he is purposefully working through them. The desires that we have today, even though we don't know it, are the desires that have been placed there by God to help us make the decisions we do. And God is working and willing his perfect will through what seems like our will to accomplish what he wants to do. And so here we again see the story of God's pursuit of his people through Boaz's pursuit of Ruth. And we're gonna see how God's gonna provide for an entire family through that. And ultimately, what we're gonna see by the time we get to the end is God is gonna provide an ultimate redeemer for all mankind through what he's gonna be doing through this narrative in this story. Love you guys. Glad you're here. Look forward to seeing you back tonight if you so choose. Be weather aware tonight. Uh our plan right now is to have all of our stuff. Uh every report we've seen up to now has said that it's gonna be later tonight in our area if it comes in. And so we've got a lot of things going on here that we need to do tonight. And so our plan is to meet. But if it shows that it's going to be real bad here at the time that we're supposed to be here, uh there is a chance that we will cancel, which means just online, social media through text, all of those ways that we use is how we're gonna let you know. Love to see you back Friday night at 6.30 in this room. It's gonna be a great time. And then, of course, Sunday morning, uh, we look forward to celebrating the resurrection with you at 9 or 10.30. Let's pray and we'll be done. Father, we love you. You were so good to us. Father, we thank you that what seems like happenings and coincidences to us is all a part of your sovereign divine plan. And Father, we thank you today that we can trust you to know that as long as we just walk in faithfulness, regardless of how hard things might be, God, you will provide, you will protect, and God, we we do not have to fear. Father, in this room today, I know that there are people who are facing difficulties in life, struggles. Father, they're maybe having a Naomi moment right now where things just are really, really hard. God, would you remind us though that in the midst of all of it, that God, you're still at work, you're still gonna protect, you're still gonna provide, and that we have a Redeemer in Jesus. It's in His name we pray. Amen.